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by petcat 5 days ago
> People who vibe code don't legally own the copyright to the output

In the US at least, the PTO has not said this. They have said that artwork is not copyrightable if it was substantially "generated" with little human input. They have not said anything about software or other creative works. And certainly nothing about software that has been carefully "vibe engineered" with lots of human input, direction, and review.

It seems unlikely to me that the PTO would declare that a software project that heavily utilized an AI-based advanced autocomplete would make it not copyrightable.

Now, if you just one shot the most advanced Tetris algorithm of all time and post it on the web without any scrutiny or review, and no input, then it's probably not going to be copyrightable.
3 comments
PaulDavisThe1st 5 days ago
> It seems unlikely to me that the PTO would declare that a software project that heavily utilized an AI-based advanced autocomplete would make it not copyrightable.

Why would they have different rules for one potentially copyrightable material versus another?

What the PTO (courts, actually) have not said is how much and what kinds of work a human must perform to transform a machine-generated work into a copyrightable work. It could be that this would be domain specific (i.e. different rules for software and art). But totally different rules entirely for software and art? Seems unlikely to me.

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tingletech 5 days ago
What does the patent and trademark office have to do with the copyright office at LoC?

I agree that the copyright office has not said this either -- they have just said that you need to be a human to register a copyright.

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conartist6 5 days ago
Yes, my understanding is that there is some test, as yet not clearly defined, in the middle of those two extremes. At one extreme you let AI make all the choices and own nothing. At the other extreme you use AI more or less like a tab complete and own everything.
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catlifeonmars 5 days ago
Legal ambiguity tends to have a chilling effect. Although I think this is overshadowed by hype at the moment.
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